Lucille Ball quotes

Quotes by and about Lucille Ball, dealing with both her personal and professional life

“I think knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, that’s good taste.” – Lucille Ball

“One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore faith in yourself.” – Lucille Ball

“I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.” – Lucille Ball

“The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.” – Lucille Ball

“I’m not funny. What I am is brave.” – Lucille Ball

“Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead.” – Lucille Ball

“I’d rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not.” – Lucille Ball

“A man who correctly guesses a woman’s age may be smart, but he’s not very bright” – Lucille Ball

“In life, all good things come hard, but wisdom is the hardest to come by.” – Lucille Ball

[About her meeting Desi Arnaz for the first time]: It wasn’t love at first sight. It took a full five minutes.

“Desi was the great love of my life. I will miss him until the day I die. But I don’t regret divorcing him. I just couldn’t take it anymore.” – Lucille Ball

“At one point, Lucille’s agent wanted to have me fired, telling her that my eyes were bigger than hers. When I head this, I told her that if I had her looks and talent, I’d keep me and fire the agent!” – Vivian Vance

“When Bill and Viv entered with that thing on their head, Desi and I had to bite the insides of our cheeks to keep from laughing. Their expressions were priceless, and for all our concentration, we both broke up. Desi tried to cover it by pointing and coughing, but we both knew we blew it. God they were funny!” – Lucille Ball

“When we started shooting in color, they began using this strange, orange makeup on us. It had to be thick enough to look good on a black-and-white TV set but look natural in color.” – Jimmy Garrett, actor, The Lucy Show

“Gale was absolutely brilliant with Lucille. He was one of the funniest American men ever to do this genre of comedy. We have almost nobody like him anymore.” – Kathleen Freeman, actress Lucy TV shows

“Even if we don’t do any more hour-long shows, Keith [Thibodeaux] is such a talented young guy, and we have him under contract, that there will be plenty for him to do.” – Desi Arnaz, 1960

“Bill Frawley was Fred Mertz. Period.” – Lucille Ball

“I think that line, ‘Ever since we said “I do” there are so many things we don’t!’ is one of the funniest lines in the entire series because it really talks about married life in a deep way.” – Jess Oppenheimer, Producer/Writer, I LOVE LUCY

“With WHAT NOW, CATHERINE CURTIS?, we learned that it was difficult, if not impossible, to give the public a ‘Lucy’ that they weren’t used to.” – Gary Morton, Lucy Producer/Ball’s 2nd Husband

“I’m getting too old to have Uncle Harry or Mr. Mooney yelling at me all the time.” – Lucille Ball in regard to her final TV series, LIFE WITH LUCY

“I was never in an episode of I LOVE LUCY!” – Lucie Arnaz

“I had never intended to be on the show more than three years, regardless of how successful it was. I had other things I wanted to do. And I was offered a role in ‘Red Sky at Morning’, [1970]. I got that part because [producer] Hal Wallis had seen the HERE’S LUCY show with Ann-Margaret. It was a thrill for me, getting to do the drama and comedy. It was such a good role. So I missed several episodes of the show to shoot the movie. And I never came back but one.” – Desi Arnaz, Jr.

“Desi was right to leave. Not that I was really planned. He just kept getting job offers that he couldn’t turn down. Jerry Paris was supposed to have directed these shows. Mom was upset with him because he went way over budget on the Burton/Taylor show. She accused him of nepotism and hiring too many relatives. I said, ‘Well, you’re one to talk!'” – Lucie Arnaz, in regard to her brother’s departures as a series regular on HERE’S LUCY

“We had our daughter, our son, and two people couldn’t have been more in love or happier than we were. Then the shit hit the fan.” – Desi Arnaz, 1977

“We had a generous share of ongoing feuds simmering during I LOVE LUCY, but not a hint of it is to be seen on the screen. Actors might be eccentric, but they’re not crazy.” – Jess Oppenheimer, 1986

“I’ll never do another TV series. It couldn’t top I LOVE LUCY, and I’d be foolish to try. In this business you have to know when to get off.” – Lucille Ball, 1960

“I hate failure and that divorce was a Number One failure in my eyes. It was the worst period of my life. Neither Desi nor I have been the same since, physically or mentally.” – Lucille Ball, 1971

” I don’t think Desi Arnaz was ever any happier than when he was sitting there, singing and playing the bongos. I think he absolutely loved building an empire — but he also had absolutely no stomach for maintaining an empire.” – Carol Cook, Lucy series actress and personal friend of Arnaz family, 1991

“They had one of those historical marriages, like Napoleon and Josephine, Richard and Liz — destined to be trouble but destined for them to never find anyone as passionate or as fabulous.” – Lucie Arnaz, 1991

“Desi was a very, very bright man. And a wonderful boss. But he would sometimes go away for two or three weeks at a time. He loved to play. Desi was really a silent-picture star at heart.” – Bert Granet, Desilu Producer, 1991

“Desi protected Lucy and knew how to promote her. He was a large part of her talent — I’d say it was a 40-60 situation. S he knew it. You can’t explain it — love is a funny thing.” – Fred Ball, Lucille Ball’s brother, 1992

“I think they were the happiest when they were working together on I LOVE LUCY or dealing with business at Desilu.” – Lucie Arnaz, 1990

“I’m sometimes scared of everything that has happened to us. We didn’t think Desilu Productions would grow so big. We merely wanted to be together and have two children.” – Lucille Ball, 1955

“Desi and Lucy always loved the people around them. We were family and we felt it and the company was our life.” – Dann Cahn, Desilu Sound Designer, 1991